Officer Sues City For Making Him Guard Abortion Clinics

September 21, 1995|By Andrew Martin, Tribune Staff Writer.

A 15-year-veteran of the Chicago Police Department has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the City of Chicago, alleging that he was forced to protect two West Side abortion clinics, an assignment that conflicted with his religious beliefs.

Angelo Rodriguez, who was assigned to the Shakespeare District on the West Side, said in the lawsuit that a superior ignored his repeated requests to be reassigned from the abortion clinics, even though the task was "contrary to his deeply held Roman Catholic religious beliefs."

Rodriguez's lawsuit asks the federal court for an injunction to bar the department from assigning him to the abortion clinics and for monetary damages from the city.

"Rodriguez believes that abortion involves the wrongful taking of innocent human life and that his role as a police officer assigned to maintain watch on an abortion clinic facilitates the ongoing business of abortion," the lawsuit reads. "Rodriguez wants no part in facilitating the ongoing business of abortion."

Rodriguez, who is out on medical leave, declined to comment.

"If this were 1859, could Officer Rodriguez be forced to keep watch over a slave auction?" his attorney David Shaneyfelt asked in a press release.

Police spokesman Paul Jenkins declined to comment.

Rodriguez has worked in the Shakespeare District, which encompasses the Humboldt Park neighborhood, since he joined the police force in 1980.

On Oct. 23, 1993, Rodriguez was part of a detail that was assigned to keep an eye on the Central Medicao Pan American Clinic, at 3412 W. Fullerton Ave., because an abortion protest was planned.

A few days after the demonstration, the department began assigning a few officers to abortion clinics when abortions would be performed or when protests were expected, the lawsuit alleges.

Rodriguez was assigned to watch clinics on a rotating basis and soon realized that it was "inconsistent with his beliefs as a Roman Catholic," the lawsuit says.

Rodriguez complained to his watch commander in January 1994 and was reassigned with the understanding that he would only be assigned to the abortion clinics in emergency situations.

But the following November, Rodriguez's supervisor, Sgt. Ronald Grimes, ordered him to relieve the officer assigned at a Western Avenue clinic, the lawsuit says. Rodriguez said he explained his objection to the assignment, but Grimes "stated that Rodriguez's religious beliefs were not a consideration in making assignments for duty," the lawsuit says.